Public schools; kindergarten instructional time. Increases from 540 hours to 990 hours the minimum instructional hoursin a school year for students in kindergarten, beginning July 1,2022. The bill directs the Board of Education to adopt regulationsby July 1, 2022, establishing standards for accreditation that includea requirement that the standard school day for students in kindergartenaverage at least 5.5 instructional hours in order to qualify forfull accreditation.
Detector canines and detector canine handlers; training and database. Requires the Department of Criminal Justice Services to establish compulsory minimum training standards for detector canine handlers employed by the Department of Corrections, standards for the training and retention of canines used by the Department of Corrections, and a database on the performance and effectiveness of detector canines. The bill requires that correctional officers employed by the Department of Corrections comply with such requirements.
Special fishing permits for certain youth camps. Authorizes employees of an organized nonprofit tax-exempt youth campthat holds a special fishing permit for certain youth camps to fishwithout a license in public waters adjacent to property owned bythe camp. Current law only authorizes camp members under 18 yearsof age at such camp to fish without a license.
School boards; duties; student transportation in certain cases. Requires each school board that provides for the transportation of students and that has established a rule, regulation, or policy to exclude certain students who reside within a certain distance from the school at which they are enrolled from accessing such transportation to establish a process for waiving, on a case-by-case and space-available basis, such exclusion and providing transportation to any such student whose parent is unable to provide adequate transportation for his child to attend school because the parent is providing necessary medical care to another family member who resides in the same household, as evidenced by a written explanation submitted by a licensed health care provider who provides care to such family member.
Department of Criminal Justice Services; crisis intervention team training. Adds the Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services and brain injury stakeholders to the list of entities with whom the Department of Criminal Justice Services is required to consult in developing a training program for all persons involved in the crisis intervention team programs and requires the curriculum for such training program to include a module on brain injury as part of the four hours of mandatory training in legal issues. This bill is identical to SB 494.
Cemeteries, special interments; pets. Allowsthe remains of cremated pets to be interred with human remains.
GO Virginia grants; matching funds. Allows a locality to use funds awarded from the Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission as matching funds for a GO Virginia grant award. No other state funds are authorized to be used as a source of matching funds. The provisions of the bill sunset on July 1, 2021.
School meal debt; donations. Permits anyschool board to solicit and receive any donation or other funds forthe purpose of eliminating or offsetting any school meal debt atany time during the school year and requires each school board touse any such funds solely for such purpose, provided, however, thatno such funds are obtained in an illegal or illicit manner. The billprovides that if a school board receives a donation that does notentirely eliminate or offset the total school meal debt at any timeduring the school year, the school board shall distribute the donation proportionately among each school meal debt.
Commercial driver's licenses; entry-level drivertraining. Makes changes to Chapter 750 of the Acts of Assemblyof 2019 necessitated by federal regulatory action delaying the compliancedate for certain provisions of that act.
Open-Space Lands Preservation Trust Fund; acquisition of interests in property; recordation fee. Authorizes the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, in administering the Open-Space Lands Preservation Trust Fund, to provide grants to persons conveying to the Foundation fee simple title or other rights to interests or privileges in property on agricultural, forestal, or other open-space land and to provide grants to localities acquiring such interests. Current law authorizes the Foundation to provide such grants for the acquisition of open-space and conservation easements. The bill also clarifies the imposition of the existing deed recordation fee, the revenue from which is distributed to the Foundation, and raises the fee amount from $1 to $3. The bill contains technical amendments.
Public elementary and secondary school students;topical sunscreen. Permits any public elementary or secondaryschool student to possess and use topical sunscreen in its originalpackaging on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsoredevent without a note or prescription from a licensed health careprofessional if the topical sunscreen is approved by the U.S. Foodand Drug Administration for nonprescription use for the purpose oflimiting damage to skin caused by exposure to ultraviolet light.
Possession of tobacco products, nicotine vaporproducts, and alternative nicotine products by persons under 21 yearsof age; exception; scientific study. Provides an exception tothe law prohibiting possession of tobacco products, nicotine vaporproducts, or alternative nicotine products by a person less than21 years of age when such possession is part of a scientific studybeing conducted by an organization for the purpose of medical researchto further efforts in cigarette and tobacco use prevention and cessationand tobacco product regulation, provided that such medical researchhas been approved by an institutional review board pursuant to applicablefederal regulations or by a research review committee.
